The Axis of Alone - U.S. Doomsday 1936-

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-- The Axis of Alone - U.S. Doomsday AAR --​

This AAR is an AHistorical game played with Doomsday and the mod Historical Stony Road 2.08. Starting in 1936 as the U.S., no cheats used except these: ministers political views changed from Market Liberal or Social Liberal to Paternal Autocrat in order to be kept and "freedom" cheat used to move U.S. political spectrum to Right Wing and Paternal Autocrat.

The first insert is more or less the story behind the reform change.

A Meal, a Meal, My Kingdom for a Meal

In the early 1930's the economies of nearly all major nations were on the brink of ruin. Countries were run dry from the 'Great War', both from reparations from the war but also due to the fact these major powers of the world had over industrialized themselves. If other major powers had been stable they would surely have imported this excess, but due to the number of economies the Great War effected, over production inevitably led to the mass unemployment. These of course weren't the only reasons for major collapses around the world, but certainly the strain the World War put on participating countries were the kindling that started the fire.

We will focus on two of these countries, these being the United States of America and Germany. If someone with no previous knowledge of the happenings of the last twenty years had visited these two nations, they would certainly have thought both had been the vanquished in a terrible war. Similar as they were at this time, it was Germany who had lost and the United States who had been victors yet no one had really won this war. Both of these nations were in an economic crisis, a depression, a very terrible depression. The people who suffered from this depression were the backbone of each of these industrialized countries, that being the factory workers, the farmers, right down to the grocery clerk. Each had several men pushing their ideas to bring their nations around full-turn.

Such men as Adolf Hitler in Germany, leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, the NSDAP, better known as the Nazi Party. Taking the ideals of the Reichswehr Group, he crusaded blaming the ill fate of the German people on the Treaty of Versailles, government, communists, and the Jewish populations. Germany had been battered down during the Great War but were promised compensation to rebuild their industries in the years following the war. However, due to similar economic troubles around the world, the United States were unable to make good on this promise and, rightly so, turned their attention to the recovery of their own nation. This left a nation full of disgruntled and downtrodden lower and middle class peoples who distrusted their own government. In this setting, a man with charisma who could win the following of the lower classes of society and a finger to point the blame would quickly rise, a man like Adolf Hitler.

In the United States it was not much different. Civil unrest was just as rife as anywhere else. The lower classes of society would look anywhere they could to feed their families, the notion of Democracy were the ideals of people with healthy families and food to feed their starving children. Fascist, Socialist, or Democratic, they would happily follow anyone who could deliver on the promise of saving their families. The election of 1932 was quite an interesting one, more so than any in the past.

Herbert Hoover, the current Republican President, was widely hated by the lower classes. This is not that surprising since so many lived in entire communities named after him, Hoovervilles, which consisted of rows of wooden boxes, blankets and anything they could find to build enough of a roof to keep their family warm and out of the elements since their families had lost everything they owned.

Franklin Roosevelt, the Democratic candidate from New York, was pushing for a reform, or the 'New Deal' as he put it. This 'New Deal' in essence was to stabalize and set regulations on both prices of goods as well as wages for workers. It would lower production in many industries, especially farming, in order to raise the prices in these industries. It would also form worker unions to enforce the wage regulations set out by this reform.

William Harvey, of the Liberty Party, or "Coin" Harvey as he was called. Harvey pushed for a monetary reform.

William Upshaw, Prohibition Party. A strong believer in prohibition. In stark contrast to some of the more popular candidates.

Norman Thomas, Socialist Party. Thomas spent most of his campaign in defending the differences between Socialism and Communism, he was afterall a stout anti-communist.

William Zebulon Foster, Communist Party. Speaking of Communist, Foster was the only Communist candidate. He was in the belief the United States should destroy capitalism and adopt a workers republic.

Now that you know the basic ideals of each candidate, the election was won by Franklin Roosevelt in a landslide victory in democratic terms, winning with 57% of the vote. The 'New Deal' must certainly have had its appeal to the American people. Whether he would have won by so much without the endorsement of the extreme elements in the nation is disputable. He in fact began the election campaign with Democratic Vice President John 'Cactus Jack' Garner but ended the campaign with Vice President Michael Patrick. Roosevelt, or rather his advisors, felt Garner didn't have the heart needed to win a campaign with the country in such a hostile atmosphere. With Roosevelts following dwindling and Hoover gaining ground quickly, his party made a bold move.

There was a man holding sway over the increased Fascist movement, he was in many respects similar to a Hitler or even a Stalin in that he spoke to and for the lower class citizens. He belonged to the party UWA or United Workingman's Association. On the political spectrum its hard to pin exactly where they stand and this changed depending on who you asked, even their own members and supporters. Many of the supporters were Fascist, especially in areas with large Italian and German immigrants who even though separated by the Atlantic were still caught up in the changes of their or their fathers home countries. In other areas many felt they were a Socialist party, as they shared many views with this party about the rights of working class citizens. Even so Michael Patrick was a stout anti-communist but also spoke fervently in his speeches to the masses of the rights of the working classes and of reforms and changes needed to be brought about to 'shake up the social order' as he often put it. These speeches often hit home deep as these men and women fought every day of their lives for the past years just to get a single day of work as they see owners of these places of employment get in their several thousand dollar automobiles in their 3 piece suits and drive away to their 3 story mansions while the people around them starved.

The stories of these stirring speeches were widely known and a Roosevelt advisor attended one of these, he was either moved or more probable he saw how the people he spoke to were moved. The advisor, Louis McHenry Howe, related what he had seen to Roosevelt and he urged the presidential hopeful to absorb this UWA into his campaign and hinted at replacing John Garner with Michael Patrick as Vice President. Roosevelt, having a long standing relationship and trust with Howe, took his advice and Michael Patrick became his right hand man but more importantly brought about a wave of new Roosevelt support which all but sealed victory in the upcoming election.

Not much is known even now about Michael Patrick's past, only of his service in the Great War. He grew up in the midwest of the U.S. but moved to Virginia to attend Virginia Military Institute and graduated in 1915. He is believed to have moved to Michigan after graduation, only believed because he was an officer in the 120th Machine Gun Battalion in the 32nd 'Red Arrow' division. His division lost 13 men before they even reached French soil, their transport being torpedoed by a German submarine in the Atlantic. His division was one of the more famous of the war, earning the name of "Les Terribles" by the French soldiers who fought alongside them. In the late fall of 1918 Patrick was shot through the upper arm during an assault against the Prussian Guard in Argonne, he would spend the remainder of the war in a field hospital. He was eventually awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for a brave assault against the Hindenburg Line and a Purple Heart for his shoulder wound received in Argonne fighting which his division defeated 11 crack German divisions in 5 days of fighting.

 

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The Democratic Way to a Dictatorship

Many things happened up to and past the election that we will move past. We will now go to June 1935. The 'New Deal' was coined as the 'Raw Deal' by the many victims of the now worsening depression. These people could look to the other nations of the world who many had improved their conditions, even so with Germany who had named Adolf Hitler Führer of Germany in 1934. The citizens were crying for Roosevelts head, or more matter of factly his removal from office. In fact one of the major contributors to him still being in office was Michael Patricks speeches to the people but they had heard many of these before and were no longer settling for unfulfilled promises. The

On July 14, 1935, the House of Representatives voted against a Presidential impeachment. The country was outraged, several thousand began openly talking of revolt. Exactly 3 months later they had their wish. October 14, 1935 several hundred armed men in uniform stormed the whitehouse and placed the Roosevelt under arrest and declared Martial Law. The armed men were none other than members of the Vice President Michael Patricks own organization, UWA. At this time the military had all but been dissolved. Only a standing Navy remained and even they had been experiencing extreme dissent towards the former administration. Michael Patrick was named the new President of the United States even though the power he held was more or less a dictatorship. This change was not entirely a bloodless conflict, within a week several militia regiments had come to oust the newly seated dictator from power. They were however in disarray being led by so many different men and the first of them were fired upon when entering Washington D.C., the remainder surrendered and the rest from around the country who had planned to make their way to the capitol quickly dissolved back into the base population. Who fired the first shots is uknown but that was not the mystery of this encounter, in fact no one knew or even now knows who had marched on the militia whether it was the UWA or the former U.S. Army. All that is known is that 37 were killed and 104 surrendered at the Washington Monument.

The House and Senate were both dissolved and Patrick called for several leaders from many sectors of the country to come to D.C. for a meeting. Prominent members from all over the country were gathered, not only politcal and military leaders but also industrial and scientific. The details of this meeting have never been disclosed but many of them have surfaced from time to time. It is said the meeting was the groundworks of a plan Patrick had laid down to rebuild the nation. The meeting was a brainstorm between the most successfull, intellectual and prominant members of the nation on what they could do and what they thought should be done to bring the country out of a state of anarchy and on the brink of collapse into a stable and profitable power. Ideas were accepted and denied on the spot by the new President, some of the more prominant ideas he planned to put into action were relief programs for the unemployed, and a plan for tripled exports of U.S. crops and meats (in stark contrast to the slowly building AAA created by Roosevelt to cut down on farming production in order to raise prices).

The major idea of the plan was to severely increase government spending to give life and boost to the economy. The idea was to lay a foundations for industrial and agricultural ventures across the nation, this would both boost employment considerably and with new regluations on cutthroat business practices, worker unions and minimum wages it would be a foundation to build something great upon. This also included the military, they would work towards a standing army and air force as well with keeping with a standing navy. This would create immediate employment for both men enlisting in the military but also with the industries with government grants for military equipment and supplies. What many at this meeting did not know is this standing army was already giving chase in Patrick's mind to invasion of the U.S. neighbors, possibly to setup colonies by conquering southern island nations or perhaps more. The immediate concern for now however was to create jobs and lift the economy, until then nothing could be done.

After this meeting he contacted several members who had attended and many others who had not about cabinet positions. With the Senate and House of Representatives both being dissolved with Roosevelts removal from office, naturally the cabinet was dissolved as well. As it stood the only person in any position of power was the President and this created both fear and resentment on the part of many. His first appointments were all direct military positions, perhaps a warning for things to come.

Position of Secretary of War was given to Douglas MacArthur who had been in the Philippines by request from the president in the creation of the Philippine Army. MacArthur's experience in the World War and his belief that officers should lead from the front meant he was a sure fit for the military Patrick had envisioned and the ideals he wished to be passed on to officers in this future military.

Douglas MacArthurs military advisor in the Philippines was a man named Dwight Eisenhower. Patrick had already planned on making Malin Craig the Secretary of the Army but on splendid recommendations from MacArthur, as well as how impressive his knowledge of military tactics and theory was, the position was given to Eisenhower.

He appointed the famous Charles Lindbergh as the Secretary of the Air Force. Lindbergh had been living in Europe with this family and was asked by the previous administration to travel to Germany and assess the progress and advancement of the German Luftwaffe. German leaders welcomed the famous pilot and showed him their JU-88 and Messerschmitt 109, and was even allowed to fly the Messerschmitt himself.

Secretary of the Navy had been held by Claude Swanson but was given to William Leahy who had helped increase dissent in the Navy while Roosevelt was ousted from office. This was not the only reason however, Leahy had risen through the ranks of the Navy and had as much experience as anyone else in the U.S. Navy having served all across the world.

The Vice President position was a hotly contested one, many had assumed Fritz Kuhn to be named but Patrick had said later that "Fritz was both too bullheaded and small minded to lead a troop of dogs let alone a nation of men." The position was instead given to the Democratic Senator of Missouri, Harry Truman. Truman had served in the Great War and had risen to the rank of Lt. Colonel. While not infinately impressive, Patrick had no intention of asking his advice on any military matter, or for that matter anything that did not involve Trumans role which was to oversee the organization and rebuilding of the business sectors of the nation.

The new Secretary of State, Edward Stettinius Jr., was never even a thought in Patrick's mind for any position he later admitted. In fact Stettinius was not even invited to the meeting. He had been former vice president of General Motors then later senior administrator of US Steel and eventually Roosevelt appointed him Director of Office of Production Management. This man had worked in several different roles in different types of industry which was the life blood of the US economy, steel, and especially one which planned on forcing a second industrial revolution. It was this and his work to develop unemployment relief programs at General Motors which created an almost perfect resume for the job to be done. After the governments collapse he had gone back to US Steel in another administration position and had attended the meeting on behalf of US Steel. He certainly must have impressed during this meeting in order to be named Secretary of State in the future.

The rest of the cabinet members included Secretary of Agriculture Henry Kaiser, he had been given many government contracts in the past mostly involving the laying down of roads and building of dams, this sort of infrastructural knowledge would be key for any nation wishing to rebuild and foster in countless numbers of jobs. Secretary of Treasury, re-appointed Henry Morgenthau Jr., was a Jewish economist who had also studied agriculture. He had been Roosevelts Secretary of Treasury since 1934 and had become a friend of Patrick's while he was still Vice President, the only ally Patrick had in opposing some of the flawed ideals of the 'New Deal'. Finally, appointed Attorney General, was John Edgar Hoover. He had been Director of the Bureau of Investigation for many years, or now the Federal Bureau of Investigation as it had been renamed in 1935. He was a natural choice for the position, whether his continous paranoia was a benefit of hinderence of the job can be argued.

 

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Rosie the Riveter

From the creation of the newly formed government until 1939 the U.S. economy bounced back, despite Englands interference with gold prices, and had created a formidable standing army, updated navy and a budding air force. In addition to this, both anti air batteries as well as land and coastal forts were built in Guam, Wake, and Attu Islands. These defenses were built on the insistance of Leahy that if these 3 islands could be fortified and held they could prevent any such invasion in the west whether it be Soviet, Japanese or Chinese aggression.

The main arm of the U.S. Army were the 1st Army led by Lt Gen MacArthur overseen by Senior Generals Craig and Marshall, this Army consisted of 9 motorized divisions and 2 national guard divisions. The 2nd Army was led by Lt Gen Stillwell and overseen by General Richardson, consisting of 11 hardened infantry divisions. The 3rd Army led by Lt Gen Collins was overseen by Gen Somervell, and consisted of 11 infantry divisions.

The armored formations were led by Gen Patton who personally led the 1st Armored Corps. Corps under him were led by Lt Gen Hodges, Lt Gen Harmon, and Lt Gen Crittenberger. The main spearhead were Pattons own and Hodges divisions, which were nicknamed the "Black Corps" due to the black uniforms unique to these divisions and the darkly painted tanks.

In addition to these land forces were the US Airborne and the USMC, US Marine Corps. The USMC consisted of 18 divisions led by Lt Gen Strong and Lt Gen Emmons. The fighting airborne comprised of 12 divisions led by Lt Gen Smith and Lt Gen Hidges.

The navy was divided into 5 main groups, Pacific and Atlantic Fleets, Pacific and Atlantic Task Forces, and a smaller Caribbean Task Force. Nimitz commanded the Pacific Fleet and Halsey the Atlantic, the entire navy boasting 143 vessels by mid 1939 including 4 carriers, 21 battleships and 26 submarines.

The airforce was still being formed and by this time had 55 aircraft, mostly P-51's, Naval Bombers, and Transports.

During this space of time the U.S. had become the most technologically advanced nation in the world when it came to war technologies. From the P-51B Mustang to the M3 Lee tank and Montana class battleships, they were certainly keeping the pace with the rising fascist order in nazi Germany. It seemed the two were certainly progressing towards a new style of warfare, each were massing large armored spearhead divisions as well as fast moving motorized corps. The difference between the two nations seemed to be in that of the infantry role though. While the Germans were still massing Wehrmacht troops on their borders, the U.S. were emphasizing more specialized units and had devoted a great deal of manpower into creating a large force of US Marine and Airborne divisions. Perhaps this was a result of the geography in which the two nations existed. While Germany operated in Europe with flat lands the U.S. had envisioned the major threat of a mainland invasion coming from the Pacific which were dotted by small rocky islands which would need to be stormed beach by beach, cave by cave. Relations of the U.S. between its allies in the previous war was at a low but world opinion of the U.S. in general had improved greatly since the governments reform, considering the isolation given to any country freshly emerging from a depression let alone an incredible governmental change. The main reason behind this however was the eyes were focused on other happenings in the world.

The Soviets were being led by a man Patrick commented on as "The most paranoid man I have ever met, which is saying much considering the reputation of my friend Hoover". He followed up this comment by a joke not well taken by the Soviets: "The Soviet constitution guarantees freedom of speech and the right to hold demonstrations. The U.S. constitution also guarantees your freedom after the demonstrations and speeches." The man he spoke of is of course Stalin, who reaching a new height of suspicion had signed the death sentence of a great number of officers in the Red Army, whether by actual execution or a very unpleasant trip to a Siberia.

Japan had been warring several years continously with the factions of China and had a very strong foothold on the continent which had by 1939 resulted in a stalemate in which niether seemed eager to push the other. The Philippines were quite worried about this Japanese aggression and Philippine President Manuel Quezon had traveled several times in the past 2 years for no other reason than to remind President Patrick that the U.S. would be obliged to attack Japan if they declared war upon the Philippines. Patrick reassured Quezon on each of these visits that the U.S. would, and in force, if the occasion would arise, for many reasons including the interests the U.S. had in the area, a string of islands dotting the Pacific which were key to any Soviet or Japanese attacks towards the U.S..

Germany had re-militarized the Rhineland, blatantly disregarding the Treaty of Versailles. Germany had continued to build a military to rival any of the Great Powers and under the new Nazi regime had continued to persecute their Jewish population, something Patrick spoke out against from the start. Patrick opened the doors to any Jewish refugees wishing to reside in the U.S., this greatly displeased Hitler and furthered an already worsening relationship between the two leaders. But rather than treat the brash Hitler by an allied invasion like Patrick had demanded, the nations of Great Britain and France had instead allowed him to bully his European neighbors into allowing him to annex both Austria, Czechoslovakia, and eventually Memel. Patrick had warned the other nations that from previous German demands, granting them allowance to expand their borders a second or third time is not the way to go but rather put a stop to it now. The clashing of ideals between the U.S. and the French-British alliance that resulted in Germany expanding its borders a second time ultimately ended with the U.S. ignoring European diplomacy all together, with one exception and that being the newly formed Nationalist Spain.

When the revolution occurred in Spain, many countries became directly involved on one side or the other. Nationalist Spain had come to the U.S. in search of financial backing as well as military hardware such as heavy trucks. President Patrick reminded the new 'rebels' that while the former administration had made promises of such shipments, the new regime would have nothing to do with this civil war and flat out refused to send a drop of oil their way. One could assume that if the U.S. were not in such a deep rebuilding process both economically and militarily that they would have interferred in this war perhaps more so than the Germans did by sending divisions of Luftwaffe to directly support the Nationalists, though the U.S. would have joined on the side of the Republic.

On September 1, 1939, Germany declared war upon and invaded Poland. Within a month Poland would be completely controlled by Nazi forces and divided between Germany and the Soviets. This caused a string of reactions, firstly Great Britain, France, and their allies declared war upon Germany. Secondly, President Patrick saw this as an ideal opportunity to commence with Operation El Cid.

Since the victory of the Nationalists over the Republic in Spain, Patrick had been meeting with the highest military leaders of the U.S. to plan an invasion of Spain. Originally it was thought that an attack would instantly force the Nationalists to ask for German support, in which German forces would quickly occupy key Spanish areas and prove a conquest in the region too great a risk. The only possibly way would be to invade the country from the north, capture key ports in order to setup the Navy as quickly as possible to meet any German support in response. This idea however had one major problem, they had no point in which to launch such an attack from the north, Britain and France surely would not let the U.S. organize its troops in their nations, especially to attack a neutral Spain. However when war broke out between the European powers, everyone in high command at the U.S. saw their opportunity. Within days of the attack on Poland U.S. forces began organizing in New York, Boston, and Miami. 24 divisions in all were put on transport vessels and escorted by the entire Atlantic fleet were carried to Liberia. Once here the units were resupplied and prepared into an invasion force for the Canary Islands.

 

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Operation Banana Cane - Battle of the Canary Islands

The Canary Islands are a grouping of seven islands, only miles from the coast of Africa. The name meaning Island of the Dogs, from the wild and fierce dogs which lived on the Gran Canaria island. These islands were the starting point for Francisco Franco's civil war, and eventually the starting point for the collapse only 3 years after. The only true exports of the islands are bananas and sugar cane but the value of these islands are not exports but rather as a naval base which is exactly what the U.S. command had planned for the islands use.

On September 29th 1939 war was officially declared by the U.S. upon Nationalist Spain. Nations around the world were outraged, relations between the allied countries as well as Germany, met a new low. President Patrick had expected discontent on their parts but had assumed they would care much less with the war between Germany and its neighbors.The pretense for war was a claim that Francisco Franco had been attempting to begin a revolution in the U.S. by provoking civil unrest, that a spy from Nationalist Spain had been captured and executed on U.S. soil, and above all that Francisco Franco was responsible for the death of government official William Pelley, who was assumed to have commited suicide but the timely manner of his death was advantagous for a declaration of war against a country who had just had a spy executed from their nation. The next morning, September 30th, 1939, the Montana class battleship USS Alabama and the Colorado class battleship USS Maryland moved to the Canary Islands and began firing on the Gran Canaria and Tenerife islands. At the same time Lt Gen Strong led a force comprising of 12 divisions of marines and infantry to the beaches of the southern side of the Gran Canaria island and Lt Gen Emmons led a similar force to the beaches of the Tenerife island. The Spanish defenses were overrun and eventually surrendered on Gran Canaria, Strong having marched his marines around the island to capture the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Emmons surprisingly found the island of Tenerife vacant, only finding civilians in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and quickly re-organized to launch an attack on the nearby island of La Palma which he did meet resistance this time and scored a stunning victory. With the islands of Gran Canaria, Tenerife, and La Palma, which includes the island of the same name as well as El Hierro and La Gomera, under U.S. control additional forces were brought in to Gran Canaria as well as a wing of P-51B fighters and B-26 bombers to the airfield on the island.

General Patton would lead the next invasion, onto the mainland Africa. His armored forces led the way to the land north of Villa Cisneros and sweeped down to take the whole of Villa Cisneros, defeating a division of infantry and division of dated armor. Hodges, following Patton, swept north as Patton went south and Hodges took Ifni. While these battles were taking place in vast African spaces, Emmons and Strong were again leading their marines around the Canary Islands to conquer it in its entirety, together taking the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote.

 

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Operation El Cid - Invasion of Spanish Mainland

With the Canary Islands as a naval base in reach of the Spanish mainland and transports arriving with the newly formed airborne divisions, the Banana Cane victors were reorganized to assault the Spanish mainland. A small naval force had been sent out to disrupt convoy shipping lanes in the Spanish waters but they instead became the most important factors of this campaign. While sinking shipping in the Gulf of Cadiz, the naval officers notice a distinct lack of defenses on the beaches of Huelva, just north of Seville which was the supposed target of the invasion. When this report made its way to high command, the forces were told they were leaving now, a week earlier than they had expected having been told of the plan to soften the beach heads with naval bombardments before an invasion force even set out. The transport vessels landed in the dead of night on the beaches of Huelva and quickly advanced north and east. The now infamous "Black Corps", the 1st and 2nd armored corps led by Gen Patton and Lt Gen Hodges, split from the main force and rapidly made their way south. They arrived behind the Spanish defenses which they quickly overran and forced a retreat. The Black Corps kept on the offensive and from Seville they overran in rapid succession the entire south-eastern coast, Malaga, Almeria, and Murcia. MacArthur's forces of the 1st Army consisted of corps of motorized infantry. He mirrored Patton's movements but further inland and moving east secured Albacete and Jaen. The battle at Jaen was the only battle which did not consist of a U.S. division chasing the retreating Spanish. The divisions which had been retreating from Patton had managed to rendevous in Jaen and set up a defense against MacArthur's forces. The battle lasted a day and it was Lt Gen Griswold who became the man of the moment. His 2 motorized divisions had not seen much action until this battle but they surprised the Spanish defenses with their quick successive assaults and managed to force a surrender. Griswold occupied MacArthur's rear in Albacete as MacArthur led is forces north through Guadalajara, setting up for an attack on Madrid from the east. The main infantry force led by Senior General Marshall pushed from Huelva to Badajoz and set up a defense and prepared for an attack on the capitol, Madrid, from the south.

The battle for Madrid was easily the bloodiest of the entire campaign. The Spanish infantry had 8 divisions heavily dug-in within the city. Marshall and Craig led the attack, from their newly created HQ in Getafe, marines and airborne divisions moving within artillery range of Madrid and artillery fire commenced. Shortly after the first artillery round was fired, MacArthur's forces poured over the Tagus river into the area east of Madrid. The Airborne Corps were the first to advance and assaulted Madrid from the south, while the Spanish forces prepared for this assault MacArthur's infantry attack from the east and together they overran much of the city and the remainder of the Spanish forces retreated north.

A day prior to the Madrid assault, Patton had led a 3 pronged assault on Valencia, leading the middle himself, Hodges the south to capture the port, and Griswold attacked from the north to take the airfields. Once Valencia and Madrid fell so too did the morale of the native forces, the rest of the operation was mostly surrender after surrender of Spanish defenders. Griswold securing Valencia, Patton led Hodges up the remaining eastern coastline through the Catalans, his assault ending in the mountains of Huesca. Marshall and Craig split their forces, Craig taking Salamanca and Marshall leading a forced march up to La Coruna to take the vital port. MacArthur meanwhile led his troops through the hills into Basque country and the ascent to the mountains of Bilbao. The taking of both Bilbao and Huesca, both mountainous regions, ultimately led to the creation of a force to deal with harsh areas as these and the creation of mountain divisions was set in motion.

Spain in its entirety, colonies and all, were annexed by the U.S. but this proved to create new problems. The people had just gone through 2 successive wars yet were still content on creating trouble for the occupying force. It was decided by President Patrick that the Republic of Spain would be brought back into existence under President Juan III, beyond the curtains though the strings would still be pulled by Patrick and Truman.
The U.S. did however remain in direct control of all Spains former African colonies except the Canary Islands. After this, many Americans wondered what the point of this war was, only to install the government that had just been removed from power in Spain? Officially Patrick claimed it was a war of ideals and governments and to install a friendly government who would be better able to respond to hostile attacks which were occuring in Europe commonly. Unofficially to his advisors and generals however, Patrick claimed it was to control a broad area within striking distance of a Europe on the brink of collapse and that he loved bananas and sugar cane.

 

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Nice.

I haven't read all of it but I will,,

 

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oooo interesting..heh heh that joke is so true..

 

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Curious, are we allowed to mention, in AARs, concentration or work camps, whether nazi, soviet or other?

 

[Corbett]

Good AAR thus far!

 

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Ok thanks, I head read it before but the one I read only mentioned we aren't to discuss mods on the issue, and nothing about mentioning them in an AAR or in a historical aspect, within reason of course.

 

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My savegame seems to have become corrupt, first time its ever happened. Dumb as I am I had deleted all older saves and every save from 1940 onward was just a single autosave which is the corrupt one. Trying to re-create what I had done so I can move on to the next stage.

 

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Itresting this is a good AAR keep it up.